Tessa Farmer

Tessa Farmer Exhibited at The Saatchi Gallery

Tessa FarmerSwarm

2004

Mixed media

Vitrine: 208.3 x 243.8 x 68.6 cm

Made from desiccated insect remains, dried plant roots, and other organic ephemera, Tessa Farmer’s tiny sculptures give a glimpse into the world of fairies. No story book land of Tinkerbells, Farmer’s Swarm envisions the purveyors of mischief and magic as an actual species, as animalistic and Darwinian as any other. Exchanging Victorian romanticism for the darker pragmatism of science, Farmer evidences her specimens as fearsome skeletal fiends, plausible “hell’s angels” of a microscopic apocalypse. Posed in dramatic battle formations, Farmer’s menagerie wages war against garden variety pests; each figure, painstakingly hand crafted and adorned with real insect wings, stands less than 1 cm tall.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2009
Newspeak, British Art Now, Saatchi Gallery, London

2008
The Animal Gaze, London
Group show, Danielle Arnaud, London
Wrap Your Troubles in a Dream, Lautom, Oslo (curated by Power Ekroth)
In Transit Ladbroke Grove London (commissioned by Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to make site specific work for Portobello Road)
Animal Magic, Eleven, London
Tatton Park Biennial, Knutsford, (May- September)
Locked In, The Visible Casino, Luxembourg
Gothic, Fieldgate Gallery, London